IBM

Nice work-life balance and lots of resources because of its large size. A good place to start working; they usually only hire new college graduates, anyway.

Usually at the state of the art in terms of hardware design, but that is in decline. Nice co-workers, but the company pits everyone against everyone for performance reviews.

If you're going into IBM hardware, be careful. Hardware earns money, but unfortunately costs money. The amount it earns is not as much as the top dogs think it should be, so I would expect it to sell off or lay off more people in this area. The company is top-heavy, with lots of senior people, so you can get some early promotions, but then there are too many top dogs (due to experience), so you are stuck. Its EDA tools are outdated. At least it should try harder to use industry-standard ones, and that can be a problem if you ever leave. Lots of regulations from the top down.

Think. Think future instead of quarterly. You have the power to change the world, but if you worry and react about each quarter, you will lose all that power.